Financial Tips: Planning For Your Senior Years

How to plan now for the future by investing and saving your money to assure a comfortable retirement in your future.

If you're planning on living a long life, you might want to stop one day and think about how you will get by if you find yourself at the age of 70, 80, or even 90 with no income except social security. How will you pay all of your bills? What about medications and physicians? What if you end up needing long term, or even permanent care? These are vital questions for those who are young now and want to make sure they live well their entire lives, not just in their youths. Imagine living high on the hog for many years, then suddenly finding yourself down and out at an old age, with no money and no place to go. No one wants to face this scenario. Plan now for your future and you'll have few monetary worries as you get older. If you plan to stop working at 65, but live to be 105, do you have enough money to support yourself for the next 40 years? At $30,000 a year, you'll need over a million dollars to sustain you at a minimal income.

Save and invest money now, for your future. Make investments, keep a savings account strictly for retirement and talk to retirement experts about other ways you can build your income for your senior years. If you make a good living now, consider investing a large portion of the money in your future, rather than spend it on going out to eat and seeing a movie. There are many other ways to save money or build up a retirement fund. Investments can include property, rare metals or precious jewels, cd's, collections such as coins or stamps, and even stocks or bonds. Simply saving money might not be enough, since you'll only accumulate only a little over $70,000 if you save $5 a day for 40 years. Find a retirement specialist and speak with them on occasion for advice on investing and saving for your retirement. Some people also work a part time job and put all of the earnings from the second job in an interest-drawing account for their future.

Another way to make sure you are more secure in your elder years is to work for a long period of time for the same company. Many companies offer a retirement plan if you stay the required amount of years, usually 15 to 30. The retirement plan is important, so make sure you understand it completely. Many retirement plans offer you half of your previous salary after you retire, but some offer the entire salary, some even allowing raises for inflation. Some plans continue to allow you their medical coverage, whereas other plans stipulate that the coverage will end when you retire. And, there's always a chance that the company will not still be in business in 20 years, leaving you without a retirement plan altogether.

Most people know that it's a wise idea to have an insurance policy for taking care of their final expenses, but money isn't the only thing to consider when thinking of retiring comfortably. Having a home that is paid for is also a number one priority. Keep this in mind when considering second or even third mortgages on your home. Plan on having your home paid for in full by the time you reach your 60's, but also know that you'll continue to have to pay taxes and do repairs on the house.

Make sure you have a current will at all times so that your wishes will be followed when you are gone. Stipulations should be made for your final arrangements, your home, any bank accounts and so on.